Due to the war between the humans and the Dalki, every individual was required to go to military school for two years. Although the humans and the Dalki were currently at a peaceful period, nobody believed that it would last forever. The Dalki were not to be trusted. Their taste and hunger for power and desire to control creatures considered to be beneath them could hardly be kept at bay. Every single day there would be news regarding one race antagonising the other, even on the verge of waging war. The citizen had this foreboding that a war could break out at any moment.
Ken stepped out outside and followed Jake as he led the way. Eventually they reached a large bus parked right outside of Ken's apartment block. As Ken was about to enter the bus, he noticed a student in particular who was sweating buckets. "Hey, are you okay?" Ken asked. The boy didn't respond as he entered the bus. "Hurry up and enter the bus. We have a long day ahead of us!" Staff Sergeant Jake shouted impatiently. Ken quickly entered the bus, he noticed that it was already filled with students who should be the same age as him. Ken looked at the students and discovered that he didn't recognize any of them. That meant they had all come from different schools. Ken felt a little relieved. With these new people, he thought that the
bullying would stop. Since nobody knew him, he had a chance to maybe impress them with a chance of finally being able to make friends.
Ken looked around for available seats but the only seat that was still available was one particular seat in the front of the bus. Ken took a seat and to his surprise he saw the same boy from earlier who was sweating like buckets outside. Ken took a quick glance at him and looked away. "Why do I feel a connection to him?" Ken mumbled. The students were all talking to each other in excitement, but all of that stopped the moment Staff Sergeant Jake and Sergeant Griff boarded the bus. "Alright, it's time for us to head to the Military academy," he announced. He raised his hand signalling the driver to begin their departure.
The bus jerked to life and started to move. The students were finally on their way to the academy. There was silence on the bus throughout the journey. Whenever a student started to speak, Griff would immediately glare at their direction, signalling the student to shut their mouth. Griff didn't even have to say a thing, since they all knew what he wanted, just by the look that was in his eye. About ten minutes into their journey, Ken started to feel drowsy. "Why am I feeling sleepy?" Ken thought. As he looked at the student who was beside him and saw him staring straight ahead like he was in a daydream.
Ken started to focus on his energy levels trying to not succumb to the drowsiness that he was currently feeling . He looked around and saw that half of the students were already asleep while the other half was drowsing off. Ken tried to fight it, but he felt his body getting heavier. His eyelids were starting to get heavy. Ken looked at the student who was sitting beside him and noticed that he was also trying to fight off the drowsiness. 'What is going on?!' Ken thought. Then he heard the sound of loud footsteps coming towards him. Ken looked up to see Sergeant Griff looking down on him and the other student.
"Looks like a few of you were able to resist the sleeping gas. I guess we'll just have to bag you."
A black bag was quickly thrown over Ken's head and his vision was completely covered. The gas started to quickly creep up on his consciousness, overpowering him. There was absolutely nothing he could do. His body slumped up against the seat and he dozed off, abandoning consciousness.
****
After a while, Ken felt a splash of cold water chucked over his head. It immediately jolted him awake. Upon opening his eyes the only thing he could see was a greenish smoke that dominated his surroundings. He and several other students began lifting up their heads to look around. There were currently a total of five hundred students standing on an open plain field, in a strange place that none of them could recognize. "This is where the lot of you will spend the next two years of your life," the voice of Sergeant Griff explained.
The green plain was not the only thing the students saw. There were three futuristic, huge buildings directly in front of them. The buildings were human images sculpted entirely out of glass. Each one stood at least sixty feet tall, but that was not the only thing that the field overlooked. They were standing on an elevated platform with a city in front of them, a hidden city. Everyone was already dressed up in a military uniform and there were technological marvels appealing to them all. These devices were too advanced for their time.
There were mechs moving crates and there were building machines, enormous things rising up high into the sky with their crane. There was no one inside the machine, yet it laid down panel after panel of glass on a building that was still in construction. There were flying ships, flying too close to the ground. Ken thought that they would crash into the high rise buildings and send a shower of glass falling on people in the city below. To Ken's surprise, no such thing had occurred.
The ships had all followed a particular path. Then there were levitating trains which rose high into the sky, running on rails that none of the students could see. Some of the technology that they were witnessing were yet to be made public. After the first war with the Dalki race, the humans had managed to make leaps and bounds through all sorts of technological fields. This was because they had managed to take possession of all the equipment that was left once the war was over. The military decided to keep most of the technology to themselves. For some of the things they had found would just be too dangerous for the public to use even if they were monitored. At least, that is what the military claimed.
When everyone finally managed to stop gawking at the new world they've been thrust into. Ken felt a weight on his wrist. He looked down and noticed that there was something placed around his wrist. It was a digital watch and nothing was displayed on the screen yet. "Placed on your wrist is your lifeline. It will identify you as a student at this military base. It will allow you to access certain areas, pay for food, and all sorts of other things. When not in use, the wristwatch would display a number - Your corresponding power level," Griff said. To Ken it sounded like he was speaking some foreign language, and from the confusion on the other students' faces, Ken was sure he was not the only one having difficulties understanding what this man was saying. He had believed that his life might change after coming to military school, but it seemed like it was going to be the same game..but harder.
"We will immediately begin testing your respective levels. Do not move until you are called forward. Understand?!" Griff shouted with a smile on his face and everyone just nodded. The Sergeant looked frightening with his smile. It was completely contradicting his hard face. "Good luck!" Suddenly a tall, muscular man with sharp facial features with black curly hair and piercing green eyes appeared beside Sergeant Griff. "You don't have to scare the kids like that," Staff Sergeant Jake said with a chuckle. "Got to give them kids some encouragement" Griff said with a grin on his face. Staff Sergeant Jake burst out into laughter "Well, then I'll be taking my leave. I have some urgent matters to attend to." Jake shifts his gaze towards the students' "Always be strong even if the situation seems to be hopeless." Jake said with a genuine smile on his face as his body slowly started to fade away into nothingness.
The students' were all amazed at the ability that was used right in front of them, "Alright, now like I was saying earlier, don't move until you are called forward. Understand?!" Griff shouted.